Coesite

Coesite, a high-pressure polymorph (crystal form) of silica, silicon dioxide (SiO2). It has the same chemical composition as the minerals cristobalite, stishovite, quartz, and tridymite but possesses a different crystal structure. Because of the very high pressure necessary for its formation, it does not occur naturally in the Earth’s crust. Artificially produced in 1953 by the American chemist Loring Coes, Jr., it was discovered in nature in 1960 in the sandstone on the floor of Meteor Crater, near Winslow, Ariz. There coesite was formed from quartz under the high temperature and pressure generated by the large meteorite’s impact. It has since been found in the craters of other large meteorites. Quartz should change to coesite at depths of 60 to 100 km (40 to 60 miles) below the Earth’s surface. In 1984 coesite was found in ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks of the Dora Maira region, Italy. For detailed physical properties, seesilica mineral (table).

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any of the forms of silicon dioxide (SiO 2), including quartz, tridymite, cristobalite, coesite, stishovite, lechatelierite, and chalcedony. Various kinds of silica minerals have been produced synthetically; one is keatite.

widely distributed mineral of many varieties that consists primarily of silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO 2). Minor impurities such as lithium, sodium, potassium, and titanium may be present. Quartz has attracted attention from the earliest times; water-clear crystals were known to the ancient Greeks...

...and tridymite are the high-temperature forms of SiO2, and indeed these SiO2 polymorphs occur in high-temperature lava flows. The high-pressure forms of SiO2 are coesite and stishovite, and these can be found in meteorite craters, formed as a result of high explosive pressures upon quartz-rich sandstones, and in very deep-seated rock formations, as from the...